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Introduction: We hypothesized that serum neutrophil-to-lymphocyte and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratios may predict pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in esophageal cancer patients. The ability to predict favorable treatment response to therapy may aid in determining optimal treatment regimens., Materials and Methods: A retrospective review of a prospective esophageal disease registry was conducted. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio was defined as the pre-chemoradiotherapy serum neutrophil count divided by lymphocyte count. Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio was similarly defined. Logistic regression was applied to analyze these ratios and their effect on pathologic complete response. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to analyze survival., Results: Sixty patients were included. Elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio were both negative predictors of pathologic complete response (odds ratio: 0.62; 95% confidence interval: 0.37-0.89, P = 0.037 and odds ratio: 0.91; 95% confidence interval: 0.82-0.98, P = 0.028, respectively). Only platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio was predictive of decreased overall survival (hazard ratio: 1.05, 95% confidence interval: 0.94-1.16, P = 0.40)., Conclusion: Elevated neutrophil and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratios were significant predictors of a poor treatment response to neoadjuvant therapy. Only elevated platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio was predictive of worse overall survival. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratios may offer a simple serum test to assess the likelihood of a pathologic complete response after neoadjuvant therapy in esophageal cancer.

Importance: Pathologic complete response (pCR) after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) may be a clinical prognostic marker of superior outcomes. In patients with esophageal cancer, pCR is associated with increased survival. While mechanisms for increasing the likelihood of pCR remain unknown, in other solid tumors, higher rates of pCR have been associated with longer time intervals between CRT completion and surgical procedures., Objective: To determine the association between time intervals from the completion of CRT to surgical procedure with rates of pCR in patients with esophageal cancer., Design, Setting, and Participants: A prospectively maintained multidisciplinary foregut database was reviewed for consecutively enrolled patients with esophageal cancer from January 2000 to July 2015 presenting for surgical evaluation at a single National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center within a quaternary academic medical center., Interventions: Included patients successfully completed neoadjuvant CRT followed by esophagectomy., Main Outcomes and Measures: Rate of pCR by logistic regression based on a categorized time interval (ie, 0 to 42, 43 to 56, 57 to 70, 71 to 84, 85 to 98, and 99 or more days) from the completion of CRT to surgical resection, adjusted for clinical stage, demographic information, and CRT regimen., Results: Of the 234 patients who met inclusion criteria, 191 (81.6%) were male, and the median (range) age was 64 (58-70) years; 206 (88.0%) were diagnosed as having adenocarcinoma, and 65 (27.9%) had a pCR. Patients in the 85 to 98-day group had significantly increased odds of a pCR compared with other groups (odds ratio, 5.46; 95% CI, 1.16-25.68; P = .03). No significant differences in survival were seen between time groups overall or among patients with residual tumor., Conclusions and Relevance: This study suggests that a time interval of 85 to 98 days between CRT completion and surgical resection is associated with significantly increased odds of a pCR in patients with esophageal cancer. No adverse association with survival was detected as a result of delaying resection, even in patients with residual tumor.

This study aimed to determine the impact of preoperative staging on the treatment of clinical T2N0 (cT2N0) esophageal cancer patients undergoing esophagectomy. We reviewed a retrospective cohort of 27 patients treated at a single institution between 1999 and 2011. Clinical staging was performed with computed tomography, positron emission tomography, and endoscopic ultrasound. Patients were separated into two groups: neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery (NEOSURG) and surgery alone (SURG). There were 11 patients (41%) in the NEOSURG group and 16 patients (59%) in the SURG group. In the NEOSURG group, three of 11 patients (27%) had a pathological complete response and eight (73%) were partial or nonresponders after neoadjuvant therapy. In the SURG group, nine of 16 patients (56%) were understaged, 6 (38%) were overstaged, and 1 (6%) was correctly staged. In the entire cohort, despite being clinically node negative, 14 of 27 patients (52%) had node-positive disease (5/11 [45%] in the NEOSURG group, and 9/16 [56%] in the SURG group). Overall survival rate was not statistically significant between the two groups (P = 0.96). Many cT2N0 patients are clinically understaged and show no preoperative evidence of node-positive disease. Consequently, neoadjuvant therapy may have a beneficial role in treatment., (© 2015 International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus.)

A reliable method to identify pathologic complete responders (pCR) or non-responders (NR) to neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (NAT) would dramatically improve therapy for esophageal cancer. The purpose of this study is to investigate if a distinct profile of prognostic molecular markers can predict pCR after neoadjuvant therapy. Expression of p53, Her-2/neu, Cox-2, Beta-catenin, E-cadherin, MMP-1, NFkB, and TGF-B was measured by immunohistochemistry in pre-treatment biopsy tissue and graded by an experienced pathologist. A pCR was defined as no evidence of malignancy on final pathology. Molecular profiles comparing responders to non-responders were analyzed using classification and regression tree analysis to investigate response to NAT and overall survival. Nineteen patients were pCRs and 34 were NRs. pCRs were more likely to be alive at follow-up than NRs (p < 0.01). Thirty-seven distinct profiles were identified. Expression of molecular markers was highly heterogeneous between patients and did not correlate with a response to NAT, survival (p = 0.47) or clinical stage (p = 0.39) when evaluated either as individual markers or in combination with other expression patterns. NAT dramatically impacts survival through a mechanism independent of known molecular markers of esophageal cancer, which are expressed in a highly heterogeneous fashion and do not predict response to NAT or survival.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of neoadjuvant therapy on lymph node harvest (LNH), lymph node ratio (LNR), and overall survival rates after esophagectomy., Methods: A retrospective analysis of 111 patients who underwent esophagectomy for esophageal adenocarcinoma from 2001 to 2010 was performed. Patients were divided into two groups: neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy prior to surgery (NEOSURG) versus surgery alone (SURG)., Results: There were 83 patients (75%) in the NEOSURG group and 28 (25%) in the SURG group with a mean age of 66 and 67 years, respectively. The median LNH in the NEOSURG group and SURG group was 16.0 and 15.5, respectively (p = 0.57). Within the NEOSURG group, the median LNH was 16 for complete responders, 14 for partial responders, 16 for nonresponders, and 18 in those who were pathologically upstaged (p = 0.434). The median LNR was 0, 0, 0.1, and 0.2, respectively (p < 0.001). Complete response after neoadjuvant therapy demonstrated a trend toward improved survival (p = 0.056)., Conclusion: The LNH was not significantly influenced by neoadjuvant treatment or pathologic response. The LNR was inversely related to pathologic response after neoadjuvant therapy. Complete pathologic response to neoadjuvant therapy trends to improve survival rates.

Background: Patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) often demonstrate variable responses to similar treatments. It would be highly desirable to develop a personalized therapeutic strategy for selection of appropriate drugs or regimens based on the drug sensitivity profiles of leukemic cells from individuals., Methods: We applied a multiparameter flow cytometric drug cytotoxicity assay to evaluate drug effects specifically on B-CLL cells from 43 individuals after leukemic cells were incubated in vitro with fludarabine, chlorambucil, cladribine, or prednisolone., Results: We demonstrated that different B-CLL cell populations from 43 individuals showed a marked variability in drug sensitivity. In vitro resistance to fludarabine was greatest in B-CLL cells with deletions of p53, a cytogenetic abnormality that is almost invariably associated with a poor therapeutic response clinically., Conclusions: In vitro drug sensitivity profiles analyzed by a multiparameter flow cytometric cytotoxicity assay may serve as a tool to facilitate individualized selection of appropriate drugs for treatment in B-CLL. Prospective trials will be needed to validate the clinical utility of this flow cytometric cytotoxicity assay., (Copyright 2007 Clinical Cytometry Society.)

Mesenchymal chondrosarcoma is a rare malignant tumor that comprises about 3-10% of all sarcomas. Reports of cytogenetic studies of mesenchymal chondrosarcoma are limited and no consistent cytogenetic abnormality has surfaced. Some mesenchymal chondrosarcomas have a t(11;22) translocation suggesting a relationship with the PNET/Ewing tumor family. We report what to our knowledge is the first case of trisomy 8 as the sole cytogenetic abnormality in a mesenchymal chondrosarcoma.

Cytology slides are often unique and irreplaceable. Unlike surgical pathology cases, where additional paraffin sections can be cut, cytology slides often cannot be duplicated because there are only a few direct smears or the diagnostic material is present on a single slide. Cytology slides are often "sent out" to other physicians, laboratories or hospitals, typically so that the pathologist at the institution where the patient will receive treatment can review the slides. Less often, a cytology lab sends out the slides for a second opinion or as part of the discovery process in a lawsuit, where they may or may not be defendants. Rarely, unique and irreplaceable cytology slides are lost. This article presents a hypothetical scenario that is based on reported state appellate court decisions. The article discusses some of the legal issues that will affect the defendant cytologist/cytology lab and the "expert cytologist," and suggests some steps a cytologist/cytology lab can take to minimize the risk of repercussions from a lost unique and irreplaceable cytology slide.

Imatinib mesylate, an Abl-specific kinase inhibitor, produces sustained complete hematologic responses (CHR) and major cytogenetic responses (MCR) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients, but long-term outcomes in these patients are not yet known. This article reports the identification of clonal abnormalities in cells lacking detectable Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome/BCR-ABL rearrangements from seven patients with chronic- or accelerated-phase CML, who were treated with imatinib. All seven patients were refractory or intolerant to interferon therapy. Six of seven patients demonstrated MCR and one patient, who had a cryptic translocation, achieved low-level positivity (2.5%) for BCR-ABL by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The median duration of imatinib treatment before the identification of cytogenetic abnormalities in BCR-ABL-negative cells was 13 months. The most common cytogenetic abnormality was trisomy 8, documented in three patients. All patients had varying degrees of dysplastic morphologic abnormalities. One patient exhibited increased numbers of marrow blasts, yet consistently demonstrated no Ph-positive metaphases and the absence of morphologic features of CML. The presence of clonal abnormalities in Ph-negative cells of imatinib-treated CML patients with MCR and CHR highlights the importance of routine metaphase cytogenetic testing and long-term follow-up of all imatinib-treated patients.

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), according to the new WHO classification, is a diagnosis limited to T/NK cell lymphomas. We present a case that demonstrates a new morphologic variant of ALCL with significant possible pitfalls for the cytopathologist. A fine-needle aspiration biopsy of a cervical lymph node showed a cellular aspiration comprised of medium-sized plasmacytoid cells in a discohesive and focally loosely cohesive pattern. The cytologic diagnosis confirmed the presence of malignancy and noted the prominent plasmacytoid features. An accompanying comment favored melanoma and included a broad differential. No cell block was available for immunohistochemical stains. Immunophenotyping of the subsequent excisional node biopsy showed an anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive ALCL. This case illustrates a new variant of ALCL. Although ALCL variants, such as small cell and lymphohistiocytic, are well recognized, the plasmacytoid features are an additional potential source for misdiagnosis. This case report shows that a cytopathologist should include ALK-positive ALCL in the differential diagnosis of plasmacytoid proliferations cell because of the clinical importance of the ALK-positive ALCL.